the Old and New Testaments--a believer in God, in His providential government, in His Son, the way, the truth, and the life, and from that time [nearly seven years] to this day his life has proved the genuineness of his conversion to the Christian faith. For this I humbly ascribe to our heavenly Father the honor and the glory.'" In an earlier statement than that previously quoted, Mr. Thomas Lewis, under date of January 6, 1873, said: "Not long after Dr. Smith came to Springfield, and I think very near the time of his son's death, Mr. Lincoln said to me that when on a visit somewhere he had seen and partially read a work of Dr. Smith on the evidences of Christianity, which had led him to change his view of the Christian religion, and he would like to get that work and finish the reading of it, and also to make the acquaintance of Dr. Smith. I was an elder in Dr. Smith's church, and took Dr. Smith to Mr. Lincoln's office, and Dr. Smith gave Mr. Lincoln a copy of his book, as I know, at his own request." This is a very different story from that which Lamon tells, of a self-advertising preacher, ostentatiously preparing a tract to convert Mr. Lincoln, and thrusting it upon him uninvited and thereafter to be neglected. That Mr. Lincoln was impressed by the book is as certain as human testimony can make it. He told Dr. Smith that he regarded its argument as "unanswerable," and Lamon's slighting remark will not stand against so emphatic a word. Moreover, Hon. John T. Stuart, whom Lamon had quoted as saying, "The Rev. Dr. Smith, who wrote a letter, tried to convert Lincoln as late as 1858, and couldn't do it," repudiated that statement, declared he never had said it; and on the contrary affirmed that he understood from those who had reason to know that Dr. Smith's book had produced a change in the mind of Mr. Lincoln. Ninian W. Edwards, Mr. Lincoln's brother-in-law, on December 24, 1872, entered the discussion with this emphatic statement: "A short time after the Rev. Dr. Smith became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in this city, Mr. Lincoln said to me, 'I have been reading a work of Dr. Smith on the evidences of Christianity, and have heard him preach and converse on the subject, and am now convinced of the truth of the Christian religion.'" Just what doctrines he was convinced were true, we may not know. But we do know that he requested the book and declared it unanswerable, that he and his wife changed their church affiliation and he became a regular attendant, that Dr. Smith became his friend and was honored and recognized by him as long as Lincoln lived, and that those who knew Lincoln best were told by him that some change had come in his own belief. Under these conditions, the word and work of Rev. James Smith are not to be thrown unceremoniously out of court. They have standing in any fair consideration of the question of Lincoln's religious faith.